


First Together (At Long Last)

by WildWolf25



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Birthday, Episode: s06e02 Razor's Edge, Gen, Krolia will celebrate her son's birthday with him or so help her space-god..., Takes place during the 2 years they're on the space whale, short and fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 18:57:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16393307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildWolf25/pseuds/WildWolf25
Summary: Even on the back of a space whale drifting through the quantum abyss, where time has little meaning and they have to make do with limited resources, Krolia is determined to celebrate Keith's birthday.  It's their first together, after all.





	First Together (At Long Last)

**Author's Note:**

> ~~okay I'm a bit late in MY time zone but it's still October 23 for like half the world so it still counts!~~

Keith thought little of it when he woke to the sound of Krolia moving around their hut one morning.  He rolled over and buried his face in the soft, thick fur of Kosmo’s shoulder as the cosmic wolf slept curled up beside him, and kept his eyes closed while he savored the precious minute or so before Krolia would inevitably seek to wake him up.  He couldn’t tell if it was a ‘mother’ thing or a ‘trained survivalist’ thing, but she never really let him sleep past what would probably be seven or eight AM on the back of their space whale, often rousing him with a question or suggestion to go hunting or gathering as soon as she noticed him waking up.  

Strangely, though, the usual prompting never came, and Keith managed to fall back asleep and wake up a few vargas later to an empty hut, save for Kosmo sprawled out next to him.  It was somewhat disorienting to wake up to the sun much higher in the sky than he was used to, but he was very well-rested. He sat up with a yawn and reached over to rub Kosmo’s belly.  He didn’t have long to wonder where Krolia was, because she returned to the hut just a few minutes later. 

“Morning,” Krolia smiled.  “Or, I suppose it’s nearing afternoon, now.  Did you sleep well?” 

“Yeah,” Keith was still confused.  “Is there something wrong?”

“No, I just thought I’d let you sleep in a bit today.  As a celebration, of sorts.” Krolia busied herself with something in their small kitchen area, which was really just a narrow shelf where they stacked the wooden dishes they had carved, and where they kept a few bowls of berries, nuts, and spices covered with woven leaf fiber tops.

“Celebration?”  Keith’s brow furrowed in confusion.  “Of what?” 

“Your birthday.”  Krolia said simply.

Keith blinked.  “My…? Wait, how do you even know that?”

Krolia paused what she was doing to turn and regard him with an arched eyebrow, as if to say  _ ‘I was  _ **_there_ ** _ , of course _ ’, and Keith quickly elaborated.  “How do you know what day it is, right now?  I don’t even know what day it is, or how long we’ve been on the back of this whale.  We don’t even have the same time units on Earth and in space.”

“That is true.”  Krolia wiped her hands off and unclipped her communicator from her belt.  It was out of range for any call for help, plus the energy of the quantum abyss distorted any radio waves.  But a few functions on the device still worked, such as the scanner than told them if there were toxic compounds in their food, and the timekeeping functions.  “But I have always had a note in my calendar, ever since I left Earth. I worked out a calculation to convert Earth days to quintants with as little of a margin of error as possible.”

She showed him the screen of the communicator, and Keith held it carefully as he looked down in awe.  The Galra calendar was set up different than he was used to, but the current day was highlighted, and he tapped on it.  It took him a moment to read the still-unfamiliar Galran script, but he managed to work out that it was the star date followed by the message ‘ _ E-OCT23-K _ ’; he was used to Krolia writing just about everything in code, no doubt due to her long career as a spy, but this one was simple for him to figure out.  For any other alien unfamiliar with the names of Earthling months, it probably looked like a random series of letters and numbers. But he could easily picture it as saying ‘ _ Earth date - October 23rd - Keith _ ’.  Enough to remind her, without the risk of discovery.

Keith looked up.  “You saved this? Every year?”

Krolia smiled softly.  “I did. I couldn’t celebrate, since I didn’t want to arouse suspicion that might expose my cover or turn the Empire’s gaze to you on Earth.  But I thought about you. I hoped, perhaps selfishly, that you might sense me sending my thoughts your way, and know that I had never forgotten you.”  She set a plate in front of him, containing a few bunches of the dark, rare, sweet berries that were always a treat for them to find, surrounding a cut of fresh cooked meat that Keith knew she had to have caught and prepared this morning (again, another treat, because they cured most of their meat to preserve it).  Stuck into the meat was a sharp stick, the tip lit and glowing like a small, make-shift candle. Krolia smiled as she handed it to him. “I’ve waited twenty Earth years to say this in person: happy birthday, Keith.” 

He had a few Polaroid snapshots from his first birthday hidden in a box of his dad’s things back at the shack.  Just him and his father; his mother had already left, by then. She never got to see even his first birthday. As hard as the memories of long years without a mother had been for him, he could only imagine how it felt for her, to be forced to leave her only child so young.  The fact that she had thought about him and celebrated his birth every year they were apart warmed his heart. 

The glow of the candle blurred a little as tears pricked at his eyes.  Keith held the plate off to the side in one hand and pulled her into a hug with the other, relaxing as he felt two strong, warm arms wrap around him in return.  “Thank you, Mom.” Keith whispered, feeling choked up. 

**Author's Note:**

> (Kosmo totally tried to eat the birthday treat while they were distracted and burned his nose a lil bit)
> 
> It's short and I've got a lot going on at the moment, but I just had to write something for Keith's birthday! Based on Krolia's "I left you once, I'll never leave you again..." I think she missed him a lot, even though she knew leaving would protect him.
> 
> Please let me know if you liked it! I've got a [tumblr](http://gold-leeaf.tumblr.com) too, if you ever want to send me a request or something. Thanks for reading!


End file.
